How to train a dog-owner
by schak
Summary: This is an answer to the dog/cat/pet-challenge. Kyoko and Ren have to take care of a little puppy. Let's see how they are going to manage that.
1. Prolog

It wasn't Rens foul. Not really at least. Even if he hadn't been distracted by a blushing Kyoko on his backseat, there wouldn't have been much he could have done.

It was late, nearly 11 o'clock in the night, to late for Kyoko to go home on her own. They were on their way to drop off Yashiro first, if he had a choose he would always drop off Yashiro. Alone-time with Kyoko was definitively preferable to alone-time with his migraine-causing, matchmaking manager. She had smiled that smile that always leaves him weak in the knees, when she and Yashiro shouted at him to watch out.

He only saw how something small ran out of a dark side street out of the corner of his eyes. He stepped on the brake as hard as he could and tried steer the car in the opposite direction. But he heard and felt how something hit the car on the far right side, or better how the car hit something. Yashiro and Kyoko were already out of the car to take care of whatever or whoever he ran over. Oh my God, he killed somebody. What he had seen was small, a child?! He killed a child! What was a child doing outside so late in the night? He couldn't move. Gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles turn white. Everything starts to faded and the world slows down, as if he tries to swim in honey or quicksand. He hears Kyoko and Yashiro talking, but he can't understand what they are saying. It sounds as if he heard them through a thick layer of cotton from far away.

"Oh no! He is hurt! We need to get him to a doctor!"

"Kyoko watch out. Don't touch him. He could bite you."

"But we need to do something."

"It ok. Let me do this. I take care of him. You look after Ren, ok?"

"Ok."

He doesn't notice when his door is opened or that the small actress stands next to him.

"Tsuruga-san? Are you ok? Are... are you hurt? Ren?"

He feels how her petit hand softly touch his cheek and neck. And he heard her calling him. He tries to reach the voice.

"Kyoko." When he turns his head his eyes meet her worried ones.

"Are you hurt, Ren? Do you need an ambulance?" It claims him down to hear her saying his name. He shakes his head.

"Are you ok?" He still states at her with wide eyes, but nods nevertheless. She worries her lips, as if she has to make an important decision.

"Are you sure? Can you drive? We need to get him to the vet. He is bleeding." Tears form in her big golden eyes.

"Vet?" It confused him. You only bleed as long as you are alive. The kid isn't dead? But a vet? Why not a doctor or hospital?

"Yes, a veterinary. For the little dog. Are you sure you are ok? Did you hit your head? Maybe a confusion..." She takes his face in both of her hands and looks at him as if she is searching for something. His mind starts to clear up. He didn't hit a child. It was a dog and he is injured. And Kyoko worries about him. Softly he shakes his head.

"No I'm fine. I was just a bit shocked. Don't worry. He needs to go to the vet? Let's go." His words had the desired effect and Kyoko seems soothed. She nods and runs back to the other side of his car. He takes one more claiming breath.

"Kyoko-chan, can you take him? I have to look up where we can take him and how to get there."

A moment later Yashiro got onto his backseat and tipped something into his smartphone. Kyoko sat herself on the passenger seat and held something grey in her arms, that whined pitifully. A second look told him that the grey was actual from Yashiros jacket, that was wrapped around it.

"Ok, we can go to the animal clinic, at this time of the night, we should be there in 20 minutes." Yashiro said from the back and gave his phone to the front. The GPS navigation was already running and Ren started to car.

**X**

15 minutes later they arrived at the clinic. He may had driven a little fast than allowed. But who cares. If this find its way into public, the story, that he has to get a little dog to the doctor, would probably only increase his popularity.

Kyoko had tried to soothe the small creature on her lap, that whined in pain. They got out of the car and rushed into the clinic, where they were greeted at the reception. After the nurse there took one look at the dog, they were leaded into a treatment room with the promise, that a doctor would be with them as soon as possible.

In least than five minutes a man between 50 and 60, with glasses entered the room and eminently started to examine the dog.

"Hello, I'm doctor Wakumo. It's this your dog?"

"No. He ran in front of my car and I couldn't break anymore."

"Hmm." He got a little electronic device and seemed to scan the dogs side. He didn't look pleased.

"No chip. Ssh little one."

The doctor took a step back and looked at them for the first time.

"I'll be honest with you. The injuries are dangerous and need to be operated. This is going to be expensive and the clinic can't take the costs for it. I can put the little one to sleep for free."

"Money is no problem. I'll pay for everything. Do whatever is necessary, please doctor." Even without a teary Kyoko, next to him, his answer wouldn't have changed. The fact that she looked at him so grateful and adoring was just a bonus.

"The surgery will be really expensive and I can't promise that it will be successful." He looked at the young people sceptical. He had seen the way the young man looked at the girl next to him and was afraid, that he only talks big to impress her.

"Doesn't matter. I will pay either way." Seeing the sceptic on the doctors face, Ren added impatient, "Ok, you see. My name is Tsuruga Ren and this my manager Yashiro Yukihito, should I walk out of here without paying, you can sell the story to the media and they would pay you more than enough to cover everything."

He couldn't associate anything with either of the names, but he thought he could remember his youngest daughter said that one name in a kind of dreamy voice. He decided to take the risk and nodded. He went to the door and called out:

"Yuri-san, please prepare OP 2. And get me fast narcotics for a 7kg puppy." The nurse from the reception came in a short moment later and have the doctor an amplule.

"Please show them to the waiting area."

**X**

Once they were seated Kyoko started to nervously fumble with Yashiros suit jacket, that she still held tight. They were the only once in the waiting area. After some time she finally realized what had been the blanket for the small dog, puppy the doctor had said.

"Oh no! Your nice suit. It's ruined! I'm so sorry!" She was about to get up to fall on her knees to beg for forgiveness, but Yashiro intervened early and pushed her back in her seat.

"It's not your foul. I decided to use my jacket. It was my decision, ok? And it wasn't a very nice suit. It was a off-the-peg suit, I have a dozen of them."

Ren knew that the last part was a lie. It was one of Yukihitos favourite specially tailored suits, that had cost him nearly a 1000 dollar. But he was definitely not going to tell Kyoko that piece of information. '_I have to remember to pay him back.'_

Kyoko seemed to claim down for the moment. After ten more minutes he noticed that she starts to shake and he was afraid that the stress had caught up to her and that she would go into shock. But then he heard her soft sniffs and realized that she was about to cry for the little dog she hasn't known for more than half an hour.

"Hey Mogami-san." He gently lifted her chin. "You're ok?" /_Stupid question. She is crying, idiot./_

"Sorry I don't want to disturb you." She said with a hiccup and tried to silence her tears.

"Hey this ok to cry. You are not disturbing anyone." He put the arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his chest. The girl grabbed his shirt cried even harder.

"I know it stupid to cry. My crying isn't going to change anything. But I'm so afraid."

"It's alright. Ssh, ssh. It's going to be alright again." He felt helpless, when he rubbed her back. He held the crying girl of his dreams in his arms and was unable to do a thing.

"Do you think Prince is going to survive?" The innocent question brook his heart. He loves her for her carrying, giving, loving nature. When she loves something she loves it with all her heart. And that the little creature in the next room had manage to steal her heart completely and truly was quite obvious. To make it even harder the fact, that she already gave the dog a name, means that she would be hurt even more should be not survive.

"I hope so, Kyoko, I hope so." He pulled her closer and whispered into her hair.

It didn't take long until she fell asleep against him. When she fell silent and her breathing slowed down, he pulled her on this lap to embrace her fully and to place a kiss on her forehead. He looked around. Yashiro sat a few seats away from them and had grabbed one of the magazines to give them a bit privacy. He noticed how the day took its toll on him too. He tighted his embrace and started to drift off.

**A.N.**

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Skip Beat! and I don't earn money with this.

This is going to be a short story to the dog/cat/pet-challenge in memory of my late dog. This chapter was a bit sad, but I promise the next one is going to be more light hearted and with extra fluff. It's going to be a short story, maybe two or three chapters.

What do you think? I hope I managed to keep them in character and I know, Yashiro seems very serious here, but I think, that he is, when it matters.

Please leave a review, to help me to improve.


	2. Chapter 1

"Is that really him? It is, isn't it?"

"No, why should he be here?"

"But he looks like him."

"Well sure they look a lot alike, but are you sure?"

"I will look him up...See the body and face!"

"Well you can't see all of his face now, can you?"

"No but still..."

"Oh my God! It's him!"

"And what enabled you to make this conclusion now?"

"Here a picture of him..." "We already realized, that you can't see his face." "Let me finish! A picture of him, with his manager! See the other guy there and here. How likely is it that his lookalike runs around with a lookalike of his manager, ha!"

"Let me see!"

"Me too."

"That's really Ren Tsuruga! How to I look? Do you have mascara?"

"Ok girls, I don't want to spoil your fun, but who is the girl on his lap? He doesn't seem so available with her here?"

"Maybe she is just a girl, who recognized him and sat herself on his lap, when he was sleeping..."

"She is sexual harassing him!"

"O...Kay, you think, that's the most likely explanation, for this scene right now? Really?"

"He is single and there is no special girl in his life. He always says that!"

"Because he would definitely never lie, just to protect his privacy or girlfriend, unbelievable..."

"But..."

"BUT, what is going on here? Don't you have anything to do, that you have time to gossip?"

"Yuri-sama! We were just talking about the people in the waiting area and who they are and..."

"I can tell you exactly who they are! They are people waiting to hear if their dog survived the surgery. Do you understand that? Good, then stop standing around and back to work!"

...

...

"And I tell you, it is him. Aya-chan will be so pissed, that she switched out today."

"She deserves that!"

"But she is ill."

"Oh, please. Stop being so naïve. She will be ill tomorrow morning, with a hangover. Nothing else."

"We should do some photos, or nobody is going to believe us."

"Good idea!"

...

...

"STUDENTS!"

X

Ren felt how somebody shake his shoulder and looked into Yashiros face.

"Hey, you guys have to wake up. The doctor is back."

"Hmm?" He took some seconds to get rid of his sleepiness."Oh! What did he said?"

"Don't you want to wake up Kyoko-chan first?" Yashiros eyes twinkled at him in amusement. Only now did he registered the warm weight on his lap. A look down proofed, it was Kyoko who slept peacefully against his chest.

"Hey, Kyoko." He just loves to call her like this, so he did it, when ever he thinks he can get away with it. "Come one, you have to get up."

He ran his fingers through her hair and tickled her neck softly. Her eyes slowly opened.

"Hmm? Ren-kun?" If he thought, he was happy, with her sleeping on his lap, it was nothing compared to the explosion of joy he felt from hearing her say his name so intimately in her sweet voice, still rough from sleep. It started a firework of images in his mind, fantasies about a shared future. A future where she greets him in this voice every morning, when she wakes up in his arms, in his bed and he is going to answer her with a kiss, that most of the times will lead to something more. Stop judging him, those are his fantasies, he can image what ever he wants.

"Yes, Kyoko-chan." A truly brilliant and gentle smile boomed on his face and with a voice loving enough to make every girl weak in the knees. On Kyoko it had the effect, that a dozen of her demons were fried on the spot and she was to frozen from the close proximity to do anything. It took her nearly half a minute to started her brain again and to review the short conversation.

"Oh no! Tsugura-san, I am so sorry! To call you do informal! I promise it will never..." Her plan to fall on her knees was hindered by a pair of arms, that tightened around her and the promise to never ever call him Ren again was stopped by a big hand against her mouth. She was reduced to star at him with big, shocked eyes.

"Now, we don't have time for that. Don't you want to know how our little patient is doing?" The last thing he wanted from her was any kind of promise not to come closer to him. That would totally spoil his fantastic mood.

"Prince!" She pushed his arms unceremoniously away and ran to the doctor, who was already speaking with Yashiro. Ren sighed deeply and followed her. He was sure the doctor didn't have bad news or Yashiro would have warned him before he woke Kyoko.

/_She didn't have to jump out of my arms... That's cruel to any man's ego._/

"...went fine. But you will need to give this drugs for the next three weeks. You can pick them up together with your dog in the evening, around six o'clock."

Her face fell when she heard that.

"Umm... I don't have the space to keep him...", she replied quietly and she looked ready to cry again.

"Oh, that is a problem. I would say, Ren-kun has the space, but not the time to take care for him alone...Hmm what could we do... Oh! Why don't you work together? The puppy stays with him and you, Kyoko-chan, help him with taking care it and all this." This display of overacting in its complete artificial maximum justified why Yashiro will always stands on the managing side of showbiz and never on the acting side. Kyoko didn't seem to notice or care, her eyes lighted up at the idea, but then her eyes fell again.

"I couldn't possibly impose on Tsugura-san like this..."

"If somebody is responsible for him, that would be me. I hit him with my car. So it would be me, who impose on you. Not the other way round."

"No, no it would be right from me to let you wast your little free time because of this. You're already paying for everything. I will find a way, somehow..." Her voice got lower the longer she rambled on. She fell dead silent, when she looked up into his lying gentleman smile.

"Oh so you think, I'm swallow enough to think, lets throw money at it and wash my hands clean from the responsibility, yes?"

"No! Of cause not! I would never think that!"

"You act like it." The smile got brighter.

"NO! It's just, I don't want to force you to spent so much time on something I could take care of."

"You said it yourself. You don't have the space. So you can't take care of it." And brighter.

"But..."

"To me it sounds, as if you prefer everything over doing this together with me. It's spending time with me really that repulsing to you?" Even if his smile stayed intact, his voice held a tiny hint of uncertainty. The small actress had shied away from him, when faced with the gentleman smile of doom, but looked up with a start as she heard something strange in his voice.

"No! Really not... But wouldn't it be bad for your reputation, if you spent so much time with a lowly newbie?" Seeing honest worry in her eyes and the hint of pink on her face, Ren couldn't repress a small laughter.

"Not as bad as not taking care of the little dog I hit with my car. And it would make me very happy, if you would help me with this little guy. Please." He smile one of his true smiles that were reserved for her. She didn't expect to see his lying smile transform into his holy smile in no time. So she did the only thing she was able to in her stunned form, she nodded softly and looked down to her shoes, while she felt a blush on her cheeks.

"That's good. Thank you, Mogami-san."

"So you guys are sure about it? The drugs need to be given every two hours the first two to three weeks. And you have to stop by at least six times in the next two and a half month." The doctor didn't look completely convinced, but he knew that even a not-perfect home was better than no home for his little patient. He really hope that this didn't end in a lovers-spat, with the dog as a victim in between.

"That wouldn't be a problem, you said we can pick him up in the evening. Can you give us a list of things we need to take care of him?" Ren noticed, they probably didn't make the best impression on the doctor.

"Yes please wait some more minutes and the nurse will get a list for you." The doctor shook his head and went to the reception to talk to Yuri-san.

"Hmm with this much care the little guy needs even in the night, it will be difficult for Ren with his workload. It would be best if you could take turns. But than Kyoko-chan has to sleep over. You do have a guest room right?" First, Yashiros acting skills didn't improve to the last time he opened his mouth and second, the way he winked at Ren was so bloody obvious, that the tall actor really thought for a moment, how well he would have to act, to make the judge believe, that he hit his manager in self-defence. He didn't do it for the sole reason, that it would probably scar Kyoko away from him.

"Oh, I couldn't possible..." Ren didn't want to hear what ever she had to say now. It wasn't ok how that fangirl idiot, had raised the topic up, but he wouldn't let Kyoko bail out on him.

"You wouldn't be a burden at all. I am very happy, you're willing to help me. And I wouldn't use the room otherwise. Oh and don't worry, you don't have to move in for good"_/if you don't want to/_"just as long as Prince needs this intensive care, ok."

To Kyoko this didn't sound like a question, more like an already make decision and she was just informed about it.

"O...kay. I think..."

"Very good. How is my schedule for today?" Sometimes it works best to change the subject or Kyoko tries to argue quite long about things she isn't completely convinced about.

"You start at 9 and end at 18:30 if we reschedule the costume fitting. That would be a problem, we will just do it next week. If you want to buy everything first, you have a long lunch break from 11:30 to 14 o'clock. Kyoko do you think you have time then? You could get the dog stuff and make sure he actual eat something." It was remarkable to see how fast this guy could switch from serious manager mode to teenage matchmaker. Not that he has a problem with a lunch date, but it feels kind of pathetic that most of the outings and meetings with his secret love was catalyst by his manager. It make it seem as if he is unable to get somewhere with her himself.

"Today I have only school and LoveMe work. It should be fine, if I leave after English at 12 o'clock. Do your think that will be enough time?"

"Don't worry, it will be fine. I'll pick you up at your school."

The conservation was cut short by the reappearing doctor.

"The list is at the reception together with your bill. At what time will you pick up your dog in the evening?"

"Around 19 o'clock thank you very much."

"It's no problem. Take good care and see you in the evening."

After paying the bill Ren could understand exactly why the doctor repeated the fact that it would be an expensive surgery. It didn't matter to him, but for that money you could buy a passable used car that still has some good years in front of it. He is definitely not going to show this bill to Kyoko. He didn't pay attention to the list, for now. His only wish was to get home and catch some more hours of sleep. It took more than half an hour before his wish came reality after he dropped off the other two. It was nearly four in the morning when he hit his bed.

**X**

He was early to pick her up. Part of him wanted to go inside and pick her up in front of her classroom, but he knew, this would only provocat rumours about them. Not that he had a problem with being linked to Kyoko in this way. But he didn't want to hear her resolute denies and how she explains the impossibility of a relationship between them. So he waited in the car, even if he started to feel impatient. He had redone his cologne and checked his hair, four times by now.

_/I'm acting like a teenager waiting for his first date. I'm an idiot./_ He let his head fall on his steering wheel and took some claiming breaths. He was half way in his claiming down excise, when he heard a soft knock from the passenger side. While unlocking the car he checked the time and noticed, it was five to twelve.

"You're early, Tsugura-san." Her face was flushed from running down the stairs and her hair was a bit messed up, add to that the fact, that her school uniform skirt hiked up a bit as she sat down and you have the sight, Japan's most desirable bachelor dubbed as one of the most adorable things he ever saw. On his top ten list nine out of ten places are taken by golden-eyed girl next to him. The other one is the panda baby he had worked with once. That thing was diabetes-causing sweet.

"You too, Mogami-san." A desperate hopeful part of him wished it was because she was as eager to meet him as he was to meet her.

"I couldn't let you get moped by my schoolmates, now." She answered deadpan and without a hint of an excuse. He should really knew better, that letting his hopes up.

They first went to eat something and to take a closer look at their list. It was shorter than they expected.

"We need puppy food for middle to tall dogs, a food and water bowl, a leash, a collar and harness. As a dog bed a blanket in a secured place is enough. But we could get a dog transport box, if we want. What do you think Tsugura-san?" Well, he thought, he loves how she was referencing them as 'We'. But that probably wasn't, what he should say now.

"How about, we go to the store and look around for what we want for our little Prince." Even when he had sent Yashiro away with an evil glare, for squeaking about getting their baby stuff, he could see this piece of fantasy play out nicely in his head. Their baby would have his nose and face and her beautiful eyes and black hair, because genetic dominance and stuff.

"Ok, if you are sure." The way she bite her lips, told him, she would prefer a really made battle plan, but he didn't want to rush through it, probably even separated. He wanted to spend time with her. Her uneasiness with the not-plan was soon forgotten, when she fixed him with a stern glare.

"You are going to eat that side salad, don't you?" This wasn't a question and no-one would ever mistake it for one, when listening to get treading voice. That's why he didn't answer verbally and just ate the green stuff in question, with a small grin. This shopping tour had definitely a bit of a family feeling.

"You did realized, our disguise today is a couple, who are getting their first puppy together?" He couldn't restrain him from teasing her a little bit. The impressive portrayal of Munch's 'Scream' implied, this hadn't even been an abstract option in her mind.

**X**

"Look at this leash! It has little crowns on it." Kyoko squeaked in delight.

"And it's pink."

"It's rosé."

He crossed his arms and lifted his eyebrow doubtful. He wouldn't be catch dead with that thing in his hand. Finally she pouted and put the leash down.

"You're no fun, sometimes."

"And you're unreasonable." He teased her and tousled her hair. She blushed deeply, but beamed up to him. That she agreed to the couple cover so quickly had surprised him. He only needed to tell her, that they were to old to make siblings believable (if you don't count abnormal pairs like the Heels) and with friends in the end only one of the would get the dog and would had more saying about everything (he just ignored her point that he should have more saying, since he is paying). His last stock of genius in this was when he was able to convince her, they should put one characters far from themself, to make sure they get stuff they like.

They disguise was simple. She changed out of her school uniform and into tight-fitting jeans, a cute top and to finish the look and to draw off attention from her person some big and colourful earrings. He wore a nice pair of jeans, a simple t-shirt and some huge glasses. Additional he wore a short-haired black wig and a fake birthmark near his left ear. You have to give people something to look at to make sure, they don't see you.

"Ok, Mr I-know-everything-better, what colour do you want?" She challenged him with a fiery glare and turned back to the leashes on display. He took it as an invention to step behind her and snake an arm around her waist and to rest his chin on her head. At first she became stiff, but after a second or two she relaxed against him.

"Hmm, I like the brown leather ones. They are classic and simple." He peeked down on her and saw that her ears had taken on a cute shade of pink.

"Oh. But wouldn't they be a bit boring?"

"Hey!" He intoned with fake hurt. "How about we compromise? What about the leather ones with the engravings on it?" He pointed at some leashes with little comic bones and puppy heads on it. After a short examination she agreed.

"They're cute. But they look expensive."

Before she could check the price tag, one of his large hands was over her eyes.

"We agreed, that you are not allowed to look at the prices today."

"You claimed that and didn't give me a chance to argue!"

"My point still stands." He replied stubborn.

He put the leash with the matching collar and harness in the shopping cart and pulled Kyoko along with him.

"Lets look at the dog beds." He said with a boyish grin. She couldn't help herself answer him with a smile of her own.

After some more arguing and compromising they got everything on the list and some more.

_"Again with the crowns?" "But they are so beautiful and they are only on the bowls and they are not pink." "So you agree that the leash was pink." "Please?" *sign* "Ok." "Thank you."_

_"What is that?" "Toys. We agreed to get some." "Yeah, but why to many? Don't look at me like that." "We don't know what toys he is going to like." "I don't know what to say. And you call me unreasonable? Put half of them away."_

_"It would even fit into your car!" "Doesn't matter." "Doesn't matter? What do you think **transport box** exactly stands for?" "The shop assistant said, it could help to get him clean more quickly. The assistant is very helpful." "Of course she is. You are buying half the store."_

_"Well, at least we agree, that getting books about puppy training is a good idea."_

_"Take your hand away. I can't see anything." "That's the idea. Don't say the price out loud. Just take it from this card."_

**X**

Half an hour ago he had picked up Kyoko and her stuff to go to the clinic and take Prince home with them. She sat next to him in the waiting area and played anxiously with her hands and he can't deny, he was nervous too.

"Mogami." One of the nurse called.

They gave the clinic her name, because it was least recognizable. They got up and hurried to the nurse.

"Please come with me. The doctor will be here in a few minutes."

Kyoko knew, the doctor in the morning said that everything is alright, but she couldn't shake off the tense feeling. She felt like it were hours until the doctor got into the room with a small transport box in his hand. Curious she tried to peek inside.

"Ah here we are. We didn't have any problems and no complications aroused. So I have no problem with you taking our little patient with you."

He took a small sleeping dog out of the box. It has a big ruff around its neck and lots of bandage around its body. What you could see of the body was shaved, apart of the head and tail. The fur was black, with a white tail tip and a small blaze. The eyebrows were yellowish-brown.

"I think, we have a mix with a Border Collie or an Australian Shepard here. So you got an active little fellow at your hands. But the next couple of days she shouldn't move too much, but that would be a big problem, with the pain medication you will have a sleepy dog most likely."

"But Prince will be alright, yes?"

"Yes. And Prince, hmm? You didn't realize, that this is a girl." The doctor smiled a little bit. "Don't worry it is normal, that people assume dogs to be male and cats to be female, when they don't know for sure."

Kyokos mouth opened to a silent O. She hadn't expect that.

It was probably a combination of her funny expression, their playful banners in the store, his relive, that the dog was fine and his excitement about her moving in with him, that lead to his next sentence. He lent forward to whisper into her ear.

"What lucky man, I am. To have two princesses move in with me today."

"PLAYBOY!"

With the way the nearly jumped out off her skin and pointed her finger accusingly at him, when she cried that, he couldn't help himself but laugh out loud.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A.N.

Disclaimer: Skip Beat! and its characters don't belong to me and I don't earn any money with his.

I promised, this chapter would be with extra fluff and here you go. Again I'm a bit worried if I managed to keep them in character. But I think, Ren is a bit planless when it comes to shopping and that he sometimes is an overgrown kid.

And forgive me, that I turned Prince into a Princess.

I real need to learn how to write shorter chapters or this story will be longer than I intended, and then I can't just put this online without having it betaed. I tell myself, with short stories it's not that important. I know not the best way to do this.

Please leave a review and help me to improve.


	3. Chapter 2

The drive to their home for the next couple of weeks ( a mix of nervous excitement and stupid joy would wash over him whenever he thought about that) was mostly alternated between Kyoko mumbling about his playboy attics and protecting Princess's pure heart from them, short awkward silences and discussions about what the doctor told them and what they already read about puppy training. It was obvious, that Kyoko was nervous about going home with him.

"Why so worried? It's not the first time you've slept at my place so what's the problem?" Of course he knew the difference between those times and now. Then she had just spent a night and was gone without a trace in the morning, now she would live here, sleep here, eat here, study here, fall down on his sofa after a long day and wait for him to come home. God, he had that giddy feeling all over his body again.

"Those times were completely different!"

"Ssh, not so loud. You will wake up Princess."Considering the amount of drugs in her system, it was unlikely she would even wake up for the apocalypse. But it would help get Kyoko to be quiet and stop her from rambling on. As he predicted she checked the puppy and apologized quietly to it. By then they had arrived at his home and he parked his car.

"Let's go. You take Princess and I'll take the rest of the stuff (meaning her stuff) up." Without waiting for an answer he got out of the car to open the door for her.

"Mademoiselle et votre petite Amie will you allow me to show you your new chambers?" Playfully he bowed in front of her and offered his hand to her. She blushed prettily and giggled a bit.

"I would be honored, kind Sir." It was simply impossible not to play along with him, even without Kyokos fairy tale obsession. She took his hand and stepped out of the car.

"Let me carry your luggage." With that he went to the back of his car and took her bag.

"Would you please follow me?" She nodded and followed him with the grace and elegance of a lady to the lift.

"I didn't know you could speak French."

"Qíu, qìu, Mademoiselle. Il est le langage de l'amour. Et est très utile dans le travail comme un modèle."

She tilted her head to one side and looked confused up to him.

"What did you just say?"

"Oh, just that it's practical to speak French when you are a model."

"Hmm, so I wouldn't need it."

"Don't say that. Girls like your Natsu are very fashionable and could attract the interest of a designer. You have a photogenic face and the right body for it."

"That's the magic of make-up and Princess Rosa. That's not me."

He sighed at how easily she brushed aside his compliment. This girl was a really strange one. She seemed to register his disappointment and concluded that it was because she ignored a possible way to attract attention and come further in this business.

"It's unlikely somebody would want me to model for them but just in case would you be willing to teach me some French?" Her eager voice and shining eyes sent his imagination into overdrive.

"I would love to teach you a thing or two in French."

The way she froze up and stared at him with big eyes, could probably be taken as a sign that his hidden desires weren't as hidden as he intended. Most likely the only reason why she didn't run away from him right now was that they were in a lift together. Time for damage control.

"Pffffff, your face. Un petite lapin effrayé. A small frightened rabbit. Try to say it."

"You, you BULLY!" In one second she was crying bloody murder at him and the next she was cowering in a corner and mumbling inaudibly to herself and Princess. He thought, he caught something about 'no shame', 'meany', maybe 'emperor' and 'a knight', he wasn't sure? What was going on in that funny mind of her's?

"Come on, we are here." Ren smiled placatory at her.

_/I shouldn't scar her away before she even set's foot into my home./_

He waited for her to follow him again and lead them to his front door, where he signaled her to step in.

She didn't. She watched the door warily, as if it could attack her at any second. She swallowed uneasily.

"You know, this isn't your way to the guillotine, just my front door."

"Maybe it would be easier to walk into the lions den." He just barely heard her and wanted to make a comment about it, but then he remembered the conversation in the lift.

_/Maybe she has a point there. Turn it down./_

He stayed quiet and waited for her to accept her fate, ehm, to calm down and enter in her own time. He then followed her in and put her bag in the guest room.

"You already know this apartment mostly, but let me give you a small tour. Lets start in the living room."

"Ok." It should be forbidden to shine so cheerful and bright, or at least it should be as long as he wasn't allowed to cuddle and kiss her, when she does it. Preventing himself from doing anything not-ok, he hurried to the living room. Small changes had already taken place. In one corner stood the transport box and next to the couch was the dog bed. Both were filled with soft blankets and pillows, and toys, lots of toys.

"I thought, Princess should sleep here. What do you think?"

"This is your home. You can decide."

"And it's our dog, isn't it? I want to make decisions together with you, ok?" She blushed at the smile he shone upon her and nodded.

"So what do you think?"

"I think, it's lovely and she is going to love it. But we should let her sleep and continue this on our own." With those words she lowered the still knocked out puppy into her dog bed.

"Sounds like a solid plan. Come on. Next room is the kitchen. You probably know more about this room, than me. Here are Princess' food and water bowl and the dog food is in the cupboard here." He opened the cupboard to let her see, after a short inspection, she turned her glace suspiciously to his refrigerator.

"So we have dog food. Do we have human food in here too, or is your refrigerator as deserted as ever?"

"It's not that bad." He mumbled quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing. Ehm, I may not have found the time just yet to go to the store. How about we do that after the tour?" When Ren saw her nodding, he got the distant feeling that the following weeks would include an unusually high amount of meals. But that's ok. He liked her cooking, a lot. They went to the corridor.

"On the left is my room, if you need anything you can always come to me. Next to it is the bathroom, we have to share it, I fear." He watched her reaction out of the corner of his eyes. He took her blush as a good sign.

"That's not a problem. We manage that somehow as the Heels, right?"

"Oh, does that mean I have to take extra care to lock the door?"

Her blush got several shades darker and she mumbled darkly. With a laugh he pulled her along to the next room and opened the door wide.

"Here is your room. Please make yourself home and if you need help, please ask."

He had put on some nice silk sheets and he had got some flowers for the nightstand. He wanted to make sure, she enjoys her stay at his home and this time he had time to prepare. She stepped into the room in wonder, she never really had time to look at the room. It was big, but not as big as the master bedroom, with a big panorama window that gave a fantastic view over the city. The room was filled with the sweet scent of the flowers.

"I hope you like it."

"It's beautiful. Are you sure you want me to stay here? It's so nice."

_/No, my bedroom would be much more preferable but I will take what I can get. Probably not what I should say./_

"If you don't want to share my room, then I want you to stay here. I can take your bag over right now."

_/What the hell is wrong with you, brain? Didn't we just agree not to say that?/_

"NO! This room it great. I want to stay here!" With a speed, that most likely made sure her watch went a second slow, she grabbed her bag and jumped on the bed. She held her bag like a shield between her and him. He forced himself to giggle a bit.

"Oh don't be like this. I was joking." _/Not./_ "We are not finished here."

She didn't seem completely convinced, but lowered her bag-shield.

"You shouldn't make jokes like this. People could misunderstand you."

"Last room. Down the hall is the gym. You can use anything in here. But before you use anything please tell me, so I can show you how you're supposed to use it. Without instructions some of the machines could be dangerous."

"Wow, you have lots of different stuff here. I can't use them, I don't want to break anything." He had all kinds of training equipment in this room. As much as it pains him, a body like his didn't maintain itself.

"If any of this could be broken be a little imp of a girl like you, then they're not worth the money I paid for them." He laughed at the dark glare she sent his way.

"Just because I'm not an overgrown giant, doesn't mean I'm short. I have to inform you, I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much. It's you who is abnormally tall."

"If you say so, imp."

She didn't bless him with a further answer and left the room dramatically, after she was halfway down the hall she turned around.

"You coming? We still have to go to the store, unless you fancy dog food as dinner."

He could somehow suppress his laugh, but he couldn't suppress the wide grin, which was blooming on his face.

"Your wish is my command."

**X**

Two months later

Ren slowly awoke from a very pleasant dream, starring Kyoko and him and their shared future. It involved their wedding and Kyoko had looked so indescribably beautiful in her white dress and the sweet kiss at the end. A kiss that transcribed to reality, as he felt the small warm body next to him move and he was completely awoken by a loving kiss.

To understand how it came to this adorable scene, we have to recap the last two months. And we will do this in small snapshots. That may or may not be made into oneshots one day, if the lazy author feels like it. But everybody else is invited to do it, if you feel like it.

**X**

"What would I need a key for?" She looked truly stunned at the small electronic device, after Ren explain to her, that it was the key to his apartment.

"You live here now. And we don't always have the same times so you need a key." He answered in a matter of fact way.

"But but..." She couldn't really argue that. Kyoko still looked hesitantly at the key.

"You know it's not poisoned or something."

"I know that!" She grabbed it quickly in her fury of being made fun off, but then looked down on it, as if it had placed the weight of the world on her.

"I will give it back to you, as soon as I move out of here again."

"We will cross, that bridge when time comes." He looked kind of sad when he said this, Kyoko thought, as she put the key away.

**X**

"Mogami-san, it's really unreasonable. How do you plan to transport Princess on your bike?" "I have a big basket on it. She will fit in perfectly." "But what if you fall? She could get hurt." "I know how to ride my bike! Thank you very much!"

This argument was going on for the last ten minutes and was merrily running circles around them. Ok, time for de-escalation.

"Please, I would feel better about it if I drive you, just the first week until we can speak with the vet again, ok? If he says its fine, then I'm not going to say anything more about it."

"But how will I get my bike back from LME?" Kyoko had to go to school tomorrow, and because she can't take the dog with her they had planned for Ren and Yashiro to take care of Princess in the morning and in the afternoon Kyoko would pick her up and look after her while she was doing her LoveMe work in LME, probably roping in her two friends to help her. The plan sounded fine until they discovered some logistical problems. And here we are.

"We'll just put it in the car."

"Yes, because that's exactly what your car is built for, transporting bulky objects."

"I'll drive you to school and pick you up, too. You wouldn't need the bike at all. Fine?"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Yeah, they were fantastic at fighting with each other like an old couple.

**X**

"Tsuruga-san, please wake up." Kyoko carefully shook him awake.

"Hmm, what's going on?" His alarm clock told him that it was 3 o'clock in the morning.

"Princess is sick. She threw up and I think she has a fever." Her big fearful eyes pleaded for him to do something.

"Ok, ok I'm up. I'll just put something on. You get Princess and We'll go to the vet."

**X**

"Hey, you heard them. She gets an infusion and will be fine again in the morning. No reason to look so depressed."

"I know, I'm just worried."

It was half past four by then. It was very unlikely that they would get any additional sleep tonight.

"How about, we get ourselves a nice cup of coffee and calm down?"

"Hai." A small smile was back on her face and that was good. He likes it best when she was smiling.

**X**

"Ahrrr, Tsugura-san!"

"Ehm, the mirror is not only a mirror, but a second door which leads into the master bedroom. You have to lock it separately." In reconsideration, he maybe should have told her this before he walked in on her half asleep, with her naked. She threw the first object on hand at him, which happens to be her towel. This left her with significantly less to cover herself with. He really should stop staring at her like that, like really stop.

"Get out!"

"Ah, ehm. Yes." He left though the same door he came in and leaned against it from the other side. He definitely needed a shower; he just hadn't decided yet if it was going to be a icing cold one or a steaming hot one.

**X**

"Ah, I see, our little girl is doing fantastic. The wounds are all healing well. And I think we can soon start to reduce the painkillers. She will be + livelier then. But you still need to give her the antibiotics."

"That's a big relief." They were back in the clinic for the follow up. Princess had been very drowsy the last week and slept most the time.

"Would it be ok if I take the bike with her?" Yes, that argument wasn't forgotten yet. It still ran close under the surface this past week.

"Oh, she maybe more lively, but not that active and she is still far too young to run next to a bike. She shouldn't do that before she is at least a year old."

"Oh no no. I didn't mean letting her run next to me, I mean in a basket."

"Oh! Sorry I misunderstood you. No, that's no problem, if you drive carefully. But you have to train her and in the beginning secure her to make sure she can't jump out."

"See, no problem at all."

"Yes and he said something about driving carefully. That very likely excludes going down stairs full speed."

"I wouldn't do that, when I have Princess with me."

"You shouldn't do it at all."

**X**

It was an endless source of amusement for everybody to watch the little puppy fight with it's environment and the cone around its neck. She just didn't seem to fit where she was convinced she should fit. After she bummed against stuff, she looked at them with big pitiful eyes.

"You have to watch out better. By now you should know you don't fit everywhere." Ren scolded her with a soft voice, as he freed her from her self-made prison between the sofa and the couch table. He gave her a small tread and put her down again.

**X**

"I don't have time right now, Sawara-san. I'll come to your office in 15 minutes, 20 at most." Kyoko hurried past her department head. She bee lined around the people in the lobby until she was finally outside. She put the puppy down on the small green area.

"Now we are outside. Here you can pee, ok?"

Princess herself still looked tired, as she sat in the grass. She had just woken up when Kyoko grabbed her to get her outside.

"Come on. The book says puppies need to pee once they wake up and that you have to get them somewhere where they're allowed to, fast."

Princess took some more moments until she got on her feet and looked around the small grass patch. Finally she decided to give in to nature's call.

"That's fine. Oh, you're a good girl. Yes a good girl." Kyoko praised her in a cheerful high voice, another piece of advice out of the book, as she petted her dog's head.

**X**

It was late, when he finally arrived home. His co-star had a really bad day and had got them lots of NGs. In the end everybody was tired and grumpy and it was late enough that he wouldn't even see Kyoko anymore. He hadn't seen her all day. In the morning she had to leave very early and he just found a small breakfast on the table and later that day Yashiro had done the dog switch because he had been on stage at that time. Yes, he was most definitely grumpy too. But his image didn't allow him to be grumpy and annoyed, and that made him even grumpier.

His neck and shoulders hurt from one of the scenes he had to repeat. He rolled his shoulders, as he searched for his keys which promptly fell down. Yeah, his day was getting better and better. He should look after Princess before he went to bed.

He stepped into the living room and instantly a smile bloomed on his face. On the sofa was Kyoko with Princess next to her. Both were deeply asleep. Princess seemed to be hunting something in her dream, while Kyoko had her arm around the small dog.

Ren sat down in front of them and just watched them for a minute or two.

"Hey Kyoko, why are you sleeping here and not in your bed?", he asked her, as he woke her up and softly stroked some strands out of her face.

"Hmm?" She slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Tsuruga-san? You are home. Princess and I waited for you but we must have fallen asleep, sorry." She smiled apologizing to him.

Her words led an unbelievable warmth spread though him. She waited for him to come home. He was convinced; nothing could stop him from smiling like an idiot right now. A fine blush crept up her cheeks.

"Umm, there is dinner in the oven, to keep it warm. I know you forget to eat when you have a lot to do. And when I was finished cooking I wasn't very hungry yet and I thought you should be home soon, so I waited up for you." She rumbled on and nervously started to play with her hands.

"Then we should eat."

Oh, he could get used to this. Today was a fantastic day, a shame it was nearly over.

**X**

"She hates me!" Big tears were running down Kyokos face and Ren felt helpless next to her. Her tears always reduce him to basic primitive instincts. He wanted to carry her off to his cave, aka his bedroom, protect her from all the hurt in the world, cuddle her until it's better and keep her with him forever. Ok, idiotic possessive thoughts aside, he should do something.

"That's not true. She doesn't hate you, so calm down." "Easy for you to say, she obvious loves you." "She loves you, too." "She always runs to you, to play with her. And she sometimes even hides from me! Why does she hate me? What did I do wrong?" "You did nothing wrong." "I want her to love me too. Nobody loves me!" "We will talk to the vet tomorrow, to see what we can do, to improve your relationship with Princess, ok?" "Ok." "No more tears?" She sniffed one last time, nodded and took his offered hand. When she was back on her feet, she mumbled an apology.

"It's ok." And if he held her hand a bit longer then necessary, no one can blame him.

"Oh, and that's not true. There are lots of people who love you. So don't say something like that again."

**X**

"Out! I'm feeding Princess right now." With those words, Ren was rudely banished from the kitchen. The veterinary told them, it's possible for Princess to associated Kyoko with pain, because she had held her on the way to the clinic the first time. (This had resulted in some more tears. "I would never ever hurt you. I love you Princess!") To correct this, those memories have to be overwritten with positive ones. And Princess being a dog, the easiest and best method was food.

For the last couple of days, Kyoko had fed Princess all her meals out of her hand. Ren wasn't allowed in the kitchen at those times. Which was a shame, because he thought his two princesses looked adorable when they sat on the kitchen floor together.

**X**

"Tsuru..." "Ren." "What?" "My name. I want you to call me Ren." "But..." "No buts. We know each other for quite some time now and I would consider you one of my closest friends. For crying out loud, we've lived together for nearly three weeks now. The idea of calling me by my first name shouldn't be so shocking."

He was annoyed. Annoyed with her for always building distance between them, annoyed with Yashiro for making fun of him and calling him a failure in love, annoyed with himself, for his lack of process with her and a little bit annoyed with Princess, for not being clean yet and forcing him to clean up after her, but that is a different matter.

"You consider me as your friend?" She seemed to be a bit shocked.

"Yes, and I would like to think that I'm not alone in this friendship, or don't you want to be friends?" A part of him was afraid. Afraid she would rebuff his request.

"NO!" His heart broke. "I'm mean: yes. I would like to be your friend, but are you sure you want to be friends with an unimportant little newbie like me?" And it fixed itself back together.

"I'm very sure I want to be friends with you." He smiled one of his true loving smiles, which are reserved only for her. She seemed to be frozen for a moment and then looked down on her feet.

"So you are going to call me Ren?" He loved to hear her say that they are friends, but he still wanted to get his point cross.

"If it's really ok with you, R- Ren-san." Not perfect, but close enough, for now.

"Does that mean I can call you by your first name, too?" It took every single bit of his acting skills to not appear as nervous as he felt when asking this question.

"Of course. You're my sempai, you can call me as you see fit. I thought you didn't want to because you never did."

_/Call you as I seem fit? Honey, darling, mine. Now that would sound nice./_

Some of those thoughts must have been obvious on his face, because Kyoko froze up again and seemed to have second thoughts.

"So I can call you Pinky. How about Princess Pinky, sound good to you?" He grinned boyishly at her.

"NO! You can't call me that! And we already have a Princess!" "So Lady Pinky?" "No no no! You can call me Kyoko!" "You sure? I think I like Pinky better. Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain one is a genius, the other is insane." He started to singsong cheerfully.

"I'm not insane!" "Never said that. But you know, self-awareness is the first step to self-reforming." "Stupid, mean, bullying sempai-friends. Ha!" "I was only joking Kyoko. Don't be mad." "You really enjoy teasing me, don't you?" "One of my favorite pastimes." "I knew it!"

**X**

They stood in front of each other. Both had their arms crossed and stared stubbornly at each other.

"Kyoko, I don't want you to do the housework." "But it's no problem, You have a lot to do and little time." "No. I don't feel comfortable with that. You are not a maid." "But you let me live here and would let me pay rent for the room. I feel like, I'm taking advance of you." "Of course I wouldn't take money from you. I asked you to move in to help me with Princess." "It still feels wrong." "It would be wrong of me to let you do it." "But I have the time for it." "I can't let you clean my mess." "I live here. Half of it is my mess." "Ok, let's compromise. We share the work." They both relaxed a bit.

"Ok, what do you have in mind?" "We already have to clean after Princess all the time. We will both do the cleaning, meaning you will not do it all on your own. It would probably be medically advisable, if you do the cooking and I will do the laundry." "No no no! I can't let you do my laundry!" Her red face indicated how embarrassed she was at that thought.

"Please don't say that. It would mean I have to cook for myself." "No, I will cook for you. But my laundry? Do you even know how to do that?" She clearly tried to deflect his attention away from her embarrassment.

"Hey! A bit of trust would be nice." It worked.

"I didn't want to insult you, but how do you know?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"When I started in showbiz I lived on my own. And in the beginning I didn't have the money to have someone do it for me, So stop looking so skeptical." "Don't get me wrong, but you had the same amount of time to learn how to cook... and you still can't produce something halfway edible..." The second eyebrow unabashedly joined the first one.

"Point taken. But with laundry I'm good. Serious, I have some mad skills there." With a silly grin, he puffed out his chest and earned a giggle from his girl, eh roommate.

"Don't laugh. I'm virtuous on the ironing board." Ren winked at her and seemed so ridiculously proud, that Kyoko couldn't suppress a laugh.

"Oh, I'm sure you are."

**X**

"Princess, it's just a puddle. Come on. How can you be so afraid of a bit of water?" Kyoko unsuccessfully tried to coax Princess to cross a puddle on their walk. She squatted down on the other side of it.

"You should know that by now little miss is hydrophobic."

"Wah! Ts Ren-san don't you scare me like that! Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Stop laughing!" "Sorry, I didn't intent to scare you." "It's ok. What are you doing here?"

The small actress stood up and turned around to face him.

"I just got home and saw you from the car. I thought I could join you on your walk. Or is that a problem?" "Of course not. We're happy to have you here." Her blushing smile was answered with a blank face.

/Please tell me, you only show this smile to me. I don't want to share it./

Kyoko tilted her head to the side, at that.

"Did I say something wrong?" "No! Eh I just had a thought stuck in my head. Don't worry about it." "Are you sure?" "Yes. Where do you want to go?" "Just to the park."

They spent some enjoyable time together talking about their upcoming project (Kyoko told him about a guest role in a drama, and got, of course a bully role), their work and co-workers (not many people know, that Ren had an remarkable comical talent in imitating other people, like his choleric director and the demanding diva he worked with in his actual project) how Princess was doing (fine, but she was a bit of a coward, about everything. She is never going to be a watchdog.).

They walked close to each other, as Kyoko animatedly told a story how she and her LoveMe friends had chased after Princess because she had stolen a script. Ren was only half listening because he wondered if Kyoko even noticed how often their hands were 'accidentally' touching. He sure hell noticed.

**X**

"Give her to me!" "Nope. She is staying with me." Kyoko held their puppy in her arms and prevented Ren from reaching the dog.

"Until midnight she is my dog. After that you can have her back." "Oh, cheeky are we?" "You are still not getting her. I will hold her and cuddle her and you won't." "Did you just stick your tongue out at me?" His only answer was a Cheshire cat grin from Kyoko, as she sprinted through the lobby. He stared after her unbelieving for a second, then he gave a small nod to the security guard and caught up to her. With one swift movement he scoopedher up in his arms.

"Put me down!" "No. If you won't let me carry Princess, I will just carry both of you." "You can have her!" "Too late."

**X**

"The wounds look good. Everything is healed and she didn't seem to be in pain when you touch her. That one leg still needs bandages, but that shouldn't be a problem. I think we can get rid of the cone. But you have to look out. She is putting on a bit too much weight." "Well, that wouldn't be a problem if someone wouldn't regularly feed half his lunch to her." The pointed glare Ren received would scare anyone into surrender. That he eventried to defend himself should be considered brave.

"Did not..." "I'm not stupid. You think I don't see how you feed her at dinner when my back is turned." Never said it was a good defense. He wisely decided to keep his mouth shut after that.

**X**

A high pitched scream was heard in the quiet apartment on this fine Sunday, that the both of them had off. Ren's blood ran cold. It was Kyoko and the scream came out of his bedroom.

/Please tell me she didn't find the photos I have of her./

He hurried from the living room to his bedroom and tried to figure out how to explain those away. And anything starring research wasn't acceptable.

"No! Princess! Bad girl, very bad girl!"

It Didn't sound so bad to him. He arrived at the crime scene to see Kyoko wrestle, what seemed to be the remains from something that once was probably a bra, from their dog. He laughed so hard, he had tears in his eyes.

"Don't you laugh. You have no idea how ridiculously expensive those are."

The resulting punishment was that all of Princess' toys were locked away and both of them got the silence treatment.

**X**

It was late. Very late. The filming for the drama took longer than planned. Kyoko only had a small role, but she was needed on set most of the time. Ren had already called at 10 o'clock, when he got home and she wasn't thereyet. Only the promise that someone of the crew would drop her off kept him from picking her up right there and then.

More than an hour later she finally stumbled through the front door.

"Hello, Ren-san?" It was strangely quiet and she didn't get an answer.

"Hmm, is he already sleeping?" But Princess didn't answer her, because she was fast asleep in Kyokos arms. Kyoko couldn't even be angry at Ren for skipping dinner. She normally cooks dinner for them but right now every cell in her body screamed at her to skip it too. She was hungry, but the effort to get up and make something was unthinkable at that moment. She fell down on the sofa and stopped any moving apart of breathing.

That was how Ren found her when he entered the apartment again.

"Are you asleep, Kyoko?" "Ren-san? What? I thought you were asleep." He made himself comfortable next to her and lifted a plastic bag on his lap.

"I hope you like Italian takeout." "You are a saint."

**X**

"You're really going to be an idiotic parent one day! Ren-san, you have to be more stern with her." "But she looked so sweet..." "I give up! You are a lost case. Let's hope the future mother of your kids is more stern than you or they're going to be little spoilt brats." " Is that an application for the job?" "Tsuruga Ren!" "Ops, come Princess, we take our leave. Mama is angry." "Argh! YOU!"

**X**

"Oh, that trailer looked exciting, didn't it? And we will now talk to the star of the movie, Tsuruga-kun! Here he is! Thank you very much for coming here." "Thank you for having me here." "Ok, that looked wow! I can't wait for the movie to come out. Tell us something about the filming." "Oh, the filming is fantastic. Everybody is professional and it's fun to work with them." Yes, this is the movie he told Kyoko about. You know, with the diva and the director. They talked a bit more about the movie, until the interviewer asked some more personal questions.

"In the last couple of weeks, you or your manager were often seen with a small puppy. Is it yours?" Actually yes. I've had her now for five weeks. Her name is Princess." "Oh, so cute. Tell us more about her." "She is remarkable. She understands every word you say and listens to every third of it. And she has the fascinating knowledge which pair of shoes is the most expensive one, and uses it as a chewing toy." "Oh?" "Yes, I fear I spoil her too much and I'm not stern enough with her."

**X**

"How are you doing that, Kyoko-chan?" "Yashiro-san? What are you doing here?" "We were in the building. Ren will drop by in a moment, now how are you doing it?" "What?" "That Princess just stays in her basket and plays with her toy." "I told her to stay put." "Yeah, but how do you get her to listen? When she is with Ren we have to keep her on the leash all the time. She does what she wants all time." "That wouldn't be a problem if Ren would take her training more serious."

**X**

"Kyoko, why are you packing?" He didn't even try to hide his confusion and hurt. He saw that all her stuff had disappeared from the bathroom and went to her room, only to see her throwing her things into her bag. It was frightening, how hurt and depressed he was at the idea of living without her again.

"I noticed I already overstayed my time here. I don't want to cause you any more problems. I'll be out in an hour. Don't worry."

"What? Why? You didn't overstay your time here. I like having you here. And you didn't cause any problems for me, whatever gave you that absurd idea?" He grabbed her bag from her bed and held it close to him.

"It doesn't matter. You don't have to be so polite about it. I'm a terrible kohai and friend."

"Of course it matters! You are moving out without telling me why! What did I do wrong..." He had risen his voice at the beginning, but it broke in the end. To him this felt like a breakup. She avoided his eyes and tried to get her bag back from him.

"You did nothing wrong. But Princess doesn't need to much care anymore and we said I would stay here as long as Princess needs care. Give that bag back to me."

His anger rose again.

"Bullshit! Something happened or you won't just pack your things and leave without taking to me first!" At his outburst, she looked up to him for a moment. Her eyes were puffy and red. Had she cried? He claimed calmed down and continued in a softer voice.

"Kyoko, what happened? Please talk to me." "It's something I heard earlier." "And what did you hear?" "Um, the security guards were talking, well there is a new guard and I wanted to introduce myself, they didn't see me and were talking about the verified visitor list. And I heard Tareko-san say that for your apartment you can put people on the list and your girlfriend. I was confused about this, because I didn't know you had a girlfriend and I am living here. Then I realized that your girlfriend probably wasn't here because of me. You don't want her to see another girl in your home. And I stayed longer then intended and you must miss her so I will just leave." All this was said in such remarkably little time, that Ren needed a second to understand everything she told him. Then he started to laugh out loud. This really was completely ridiculous.

"You. Hahaha! You, they were talking about you." "What?" "The guards. They were talking about you. I don't have a girlfriend. There is no other girl. They said, that you can add people on the visitor list. Not some mysterious other girl." "Oh..."

She stopped tugging on her bag.

"Why would they think that?" At that he laughed even louder.

"Whatever could give them that idea? A young girl moves in with a young guy. They get a dog together. They go grocery shopping together. Walk their dog together. Completely unbelievable."

"They think, I'm you're... That we are..." Her brain seemed to have a short circuited, as she got redder and redder. After some time her brain had to reboot.

"Come, come! We have to go down and clear this mistake up! Your reputation could be ruined by this!"

"And what exactly do you plan to tell them? That I just lure pretty young girls into my home and don't let them out again?" "What? No! But aren't you embarrassed that they think you would date someone like me?" "No." "What?" "No. I'm not embarrassed because somebody thinks we are a couple. I think it's flattering and I like being envied by them." "Envied?" "Of course. They are envying me for the funny, sweet, beautiful, smart, caring girl who I live with. So no. I don't think I want to correct them. And now: do you need help putting your stuff away again?" "Eh?"

**X**

"So, what's our plan now?" They took shelter under some shop canopy. When they had been on their walk it had started to rain, a lot. In a matter of minutes it went from nice dry weather to raining cats and dogs. Heaven's gates had opened and it bucked down all it had in storage. They were soaked to the core, even with Ren trying to protect them with his jacket.

"Well, I'm listening Mr. The-weather-report-is-rubbish-we-don't-need-an-umbrella. What's your plan to get us home?" She challenged him with a raised eyebrow as she held a shivering Princess close to her chest.

"Ok, first, with this rain an umbrella would have been useless. And second, give me a second I'll work something out." "I will believe that when I see that."

Not only was the dog chilled to the bone, but Kyoko too. That was why she shuffled closer to him, to steal a bit of his warmth.

He didn't have a plan on how to get them home, but he had an pretty good idea about his long-term plan for their future, as he looked down at the girl next to him.

**X**

"Ok. Please, you have to keep her still. I can't vaccinate her if she is moving like this." "I'm trying to." Kyoko was out of the room for a moment to give the immunization card to the nurse; in the meantime Ren and the doctor were unsuccessfully trying to actually immunized Princess. She jumped from the treatment table and played fetch with them and she was winning.

"Princess, sit." Kyoko had reentered the room and Princess instantly followed her command. She picked the dog up and sat her back on the table where the doctor was able to do his work easily.

"I have no idea why she doesn't listen to me but always does what Kyoko tells her."

"That's an easy one. Most likely, because she is the boss and you are the snack box."

The look he received from Kyoko said one thing and one thing only.

I told you so.

**X**

Ren slowly awoke from a very pleasant dream, starring Kyoko and him and their shared future. It involved their wedding and Kyoko had looked so indescribably beautiful in her white dress and the sweet kiss at the end. A kiss that transcribed to reality, as he felt the small warm body next to him moved and he was completely awoken by a loving kiss.

"Argh! Princess get away! Out of my bed!"

Of course it hadn't been Kyoko. We are talking about Mr. Snail-pace here, get realistic.

Princess was a very timid dog. She was afraid of everything, other people, cars, other dogs, loud noise, storms.

Last one had led to Ren taking pity on her once and he had let her sleep in his bed, once.

Princess didn't really care for the once part of their deal. But let's face it both his princesses had him warped around their finger. One of them just hadn't realized it yet.

**A.N.**

Hey, I just managed to write 12 and 1/2 pages on a short story chapter without getting them together. I'm bloody brilliant. Even if they are kind of together already, they just need to kiss. But that's the difficult part with those two.

There will be one more chapter, then this story is done.

Tell me what you think. I had to many ideas in my head for the length of the story I planned. The result is this. I tried to give you a view of their life together, without having to write an whole fic. Which one did like, which one didn't you like? If one of you want to pick one of the scenes up, please do. Just tell me and send me a link to the story.

And thank you and muchas gracias to my reviewers. You are the best.


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